


i really want to kiss you (and i think i might)

by sickoflosiingsoulmates



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, idk there's probably more I'm just bad at tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 21:16:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sickoflosiingsoulmates/pseuds/sickoflosiingsoulmates
Summary: Soulmate AU where the words your soulmate will say to you before you kiss for the first time are written on your skin.





	i really want to kiss you (and i think i might)

**Author's Note:**

> Ah! I know you're supposed to say this about everything you write, but this is my favorite thing I've ever written.  
> Title from Freckles and Constellations by Dodie Clark

Piper is eight, and she has a searing pain running down her side.

The paper plate she’s holding slips between her fingers, the yellow frosting smearing on the concrete. Her father gives her a confused look, but Piper doesn’t offer an explanation as she rushes to the bathroom.

She knows what the pain means; she’s heard the stories. When it dulls down, she’ll see words branded on her skin. The words that she is to hear right before her soulmate kisses her for the first time.

Carefully, she lifts the side of her shirt, just enough to reveal the still-red words stamped on her hip. She runs her fingers over the words, reading ‘I can’t keep being your friend when all I want to do is kiss you.’

It’s not what Piper expected. To be fair, she wasn’t really expecting anything, but this-this is so different than any of the soulmarks she had seen. Soulmarks, generally, were around a few words, sometimes not even that. Piper was expecting something along those lines, but she supposes she can’t complain. At least it will be easy to identify her soulmate.

She hears her father’s footsteps as he walks down the hallway. A second later, she hears him call, “Piper? Are you okay?”

She looks in the mirror once more, grinning to herself. “I’m just fine, Dad.”

Piper is eight, but she feels like her life is just about to start.

-

Piper is eleven, and she spends more time than ever thinking about her soulmate.

Anytime a girl is friendly with her, there’s a voice in the back of her mind wondering if she is Piper’s soulmate. She tries to quiet the voice, knowing that most people don’t find their soulmates until college. Still, she spends a lot of time thinking about meeting her soulmate.

In science, she tunes out whatever her teacher is saying to look at the green-eyed girl who sits two tables over. She finds herself looking at girls during lunch, her eyes flitting from table to table. It thrills her, knowing that her soulmate could be sitting in the same room as her.

She tries to tell herself that there’s a really good chance that she doesn’t even know her soulmate yet, that her soulmate doesn’t know her. Still, it’s fun to imagine a world where she does.

Sometimes she talks to Leo and Jason about soulmates. It’s been ingrained in Piper’s mind to never, ever show people her soulmark until she meets her soulmate so that the meeting is organic, which means that Jason and Leo don’t know hers, and she doesn’t know theirs.

“Do you ever think about meeting your soulmate?” She asks one day, sitting on a chair in Jason’s living room.

Jason nods just as Leo says, “Sure, who doesn’t?” Piper sinks back further in the chair.

“Do you think you’ve met them them already?” Piper asks, quieter, more contemplative.

Leo’s heads perks up in interest. “What, do you think you have?” Piper feels her face heat.

“No, but, you know, I wonder sometimes. If I know her, and we just haven’t talked yet,” she says, and that ends the conversation. She doesn’t miss the way that Jason’s eyes find Leo’s afterwards, but she doesn’t comment on it.

Piper is eleven, and she can’t wait to find her soulmate.

-

Piper is fifteen, and she thinks she’s met her soulmate.

Things have been going well with Alexis. Piper has been friends with her for a few months, growing from lab partners to friends. Piper finds herself constantly wondering if they could be becoming more than that.

She doesn’t know if she is thrilled or terrified by the thought.

After weeks of long glances and daydreaming about a first kiss, Piper finds herself hanging out with Alexis in Piper’s room. Piper looks up from her homework to find Alexis staring at her.

“Hey,” Alexis says quietly. Piper gulps.

“Hey,” Piper says back, and she waits. Her heart beats faster, but Alexis hasn’t said her line. Not yet. Piper tries to wait, but Alexis starts leaning in, and it’s not the way it’s supposed to go. Piper blurts, “Wait.”

Alexis pauses, clearly confused. “I-I thought-”

“I thought too. But, um, your words don’t match mine.” Piper hates how it sounds like a question.

Alexis bites her lip, eyes glassy. Piper doesn’t think she can bear to see Alexis start crying. “I’m sorry,” Alexis starts, her voice watery and hoarse. “I’m sorry, I’ll leave, I’ll, uh, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Before Piper can respond, Alexis rushes out of Piper’s room.

Piper doesn’t move from the floor for an hour. She really believed that Alexis was her soulmate. She wanted Alexis to be her soulmate. Piper tries to tell herself that Alexis can still be her soulmate, but it seems pointless. Piper had blown her chance.

Piper is fifteen, and she can’t believe she let herself loose Alexis.

-

Piper is nineteen, and she’s late to her class.

Well, technically, the class hasn’t started yet. But she has five minutes to cross the campus, and she doubts she would make it on time even if she ran. Still, her professor seems pretty laid-back, so she isn’t too concerned.

Piper is, however, concerned about the girl who looks defeated on a bench a few feet away from her. She debates with herself for a moment before taking the seat next to the girl. Piper’s already going to be late, she might as well make it count.

Piper doesn’t start a conversation with the girl right away. She knows how annoying it is to have strangers start conversations with her on a good day. When she’s feeling low, it’s downright torture.

The girl looks over at Piper after a minute. “Do you want something?” She asks, but it doesn’t sound aggressive. She sounds defeated.

“Oh, well, you just looked- sad, I guess. I wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Piper says. The girl makes a face, something between confusion and gratitude.

“Oh.” She audibly gulps, and turns to fully face Piper. “It’s just one of those days, you know? I got a D on a test I thought I did really well on, and my friends cancelled plans on me last minute. Normally, I would be leaving to go to work in,” she pauses, glancing at her watch, “Ten minutes, but I quit impulsively last week.” The girl sighs, as if telling Piper all of that was draining. For all Piper knows, it might have been.

Piper slides microscopically closer to the girl, a silent show of support. The girl glances up at Piper sheepishly. “Sorry for springing that on you.”

“Oh, it’s no problem, really. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone,” Piper says. The girl’s mouth quirks up in the shadow of a smile.

“Well, thanks. I appreciate it,” she says. Her eyes catch on the textbook that sits next to Piper before flickering back up to Piper’s face. “Am I keeping you from your class? Sorry, I’ll let you go-”

“No, um, I was already late when I sat down. I’ll just skip today.” It’s obvious that the girl doesn’t know what to do with that. Her eyes linger on Piper’s face for a second more before her expression brightens.

“Thank you again, I really needed that. I should get going, though,” the girl says, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

As she stands, Piper reaches out, her fingers curling around the girl’s wrist. “Wait,” she says, “I never got your name. I’m Piper.”

“Annabeth,” she says, smiling one last time at Piper. “I’ll see you around.”

-

As it turns out, they run into each other again just a few days later. Piper enters her last class of the day and scans the room for a seat. As she does so, she spots a familiar blonde ponytail in a seat by the window.

“Hey,” Piper says as she slides into the seat next to Annabeth. Annabeth turns to look, and her mouth turns up in a smile.

“Hi,” she says, but before she can say anything else, the professor begins introducing herself.

Piper spends the the class in silence, stealing glances at Annabeth whenever she can. Annabeth really is pretty, with her frizzy golden hair pulled back, accenting the faint freckles spreading across the bridge of her nose. Her eyes, a stormy gray, are trained on their professor, paying no mind to Piper’s longing looks.

Oh no, Piper thinks, and she hurriedly tears her eyes away from Annabeth.

-

Piper tries to tell herself not to fall for Annabeth, to not fall for another girl who inevitably won’t be her soulmate, but her own protests are fruitless. After two weeks in the class, two weeks of light conversation and whispered remarks, Annabeth asks Piper if she wants to meet up outside of class.

“To study,” Annabeth explains, referencing the test they have in their class later that week. Piper agrees, and they meet up the next day at a local coffee shop.

When Piper gets to the cafe, she finds Annabeth already seated at a booth, scrawling something down on an index card. Piper purposely does not think about how cute Annabeth looks while biting her bottom lip.

Piper takes her seat across from Annabeth. Annabeth nods her head in acknowledgement but doesn’t look up from her notes.

They study together for the next hour and a half. Annabeth continues to make flashcards, and Piper reads through the chapter again in her textbook, writing notes in the margins. Occasionally, one of them doesn’t understand a topic, and the other will break it down, but otherwise, they work in silence.

Halfway through her studying, Piper’s attention weans. It becomes harder to focus the more she is aware of Annabeth sitting across from her. Annabeth, who has strands of hair falling out of her ponytail, framing her face beautifully. Annabeth, whose eyes squint against the small print in her textbook. Annabeth, who Piper shouldn’t be staring at.

Piper has fallen for many girls in her life, with Alexis as the first. With each girl, Piper’s hope that her current crush will be her soulmate has shrunk.

It’s not that Piper doesn’t think her soulmate is out there. She knows that, eventually, she will meet her. Piper has just found it harder to keep her hopes up when they just get crushed every time.

“Piper,” Annabeth says, successfully pulling Piper out of her thoughts. Annabeth stares expectantly at her, and Piper realizes that Annabeth had said something to her.

“Sorry, can you repeat that? I didn’t catch what you said,” she says, hoping she doesn’t come across as rude.

“I asked if you wanted to quiz each other over the material,” Annabeth says, her voice light.

“Oh! Yeah, that would be great,” Piper says. Annabeth picks up her flashcards, and Piper explains the concept to her.

For the next fifteen minutes, they quiz each other using Annabeth’s flashcards. Annabeth is in the middle of describing a vocab word when her alarm goes off. “Sorry,” she says, sheepish, “But I really need to leave if I want to make it to class on time.”

“Oh no, it’s fine. I should probably be heading back to my dorm anyway,” Piper says. They clear their table and walk out of the coffee shop together.

“That was nice. We should do it again sometime,” Annabeth says once they’re outside. Piper doesn’t think about how similar it sounds to the end of a date.

Instead, she agrees, “Yeah definitely. I enjoyed it.” After a second, she adds, “Well, as much as you can enjoy studying.”

Annabeth laughs, and Piper grins in return. When her laugh dies out, Annabeth says, “I should really head out. I’ll see you in class.”

“Yeah, see you then,” Piper says, and she turns to head back to her dorm. If she replays Annabeth’s laugh in her head the entire way, well, no one has to know.

-

Over the next few months, the number of study sessions between Piper and Annabeth grows. With it grows their friendship and, to Piper’s dismay, Piper’s hopeless crush for Annabeth. As far as Piper is aware, Annabeth doesn’t know about her crush, and Piper plans for it to stay that way. It is after one of these study sessions, in Piper’s quiet dorm, where everything comes to a head.

Annabeth is sprawled out across Piper’s bed, and Piper rests against the wall, her legs spread out on the floor in front of her. The conversation between them is easy, casual, and so, so nice.

From where she’s sitting, Piper can see Annabeth well. Shockingly, her hair is not tied back in it’s signature ponytail. Instead, it’s fanned out around Annabeth’s head. She looks so pretty Piper can hardly breathe.

Eventually, Piper tears her eyes away from Annabeth, instead training them on the wall in front of her as she says, “I’ve always wanted a garden.”

It’s such an abrupt change of topic that, even out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth looks surprised. Piper is, too. She hadn’t planned on bringing it up, but she’d been distracted and wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying. Still, she continues on.

“Not like a real, outdoors garden. A windowsill lined with plants, something low maintenance, easy to take care of. Something that I can call my own.” Piper’s voice sounds dreamy, faraway, even to her own ears. Annabeth’s eyes are trained on Piper, willing her to go on. “It would be nice. A tangible thing to call my own. I would come home from work, water my plants, and curl up on the couch with my girlfriend.”

Piper feels more than sees Annabeth sitting up, turning to see Piper better. Piper isn’t shy about her sexuality by any means, but it hadn’t come up in conversation with Annabeth, until now. Piper glances at Annabeth, keeping their eyes locked as she says, “I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve always wanted.”

Annabeth audibly gulps, an emotion passing quickly across her face that Piper can’t decipher. Annabeth chews on her lip for a moment before pushing herself off the bed. “I’m sorry, I have to go,” she says in a rush, shouldering her bag. Pipers stands, stopping Annabeth before she gets to the door.

“Is this about-about me liking girls?” Piper asks quietly, and Annabeth looks horrified at the thought. It eases Piper’s nerves, but nervousness still pulls at her heart.

“No! No, I would never. I just-I can’t do this anymore,” Annabeth says, her voice low, as if the words pain her to say.

“Can’t do what?” Piper asks, trying to keep her voice even, calm. She can’t tell if it’s working or not.

Annabeth’s eyebrows pinch together, and she says, “I can’t keep being your friend when all I want to do it kiss you.”

Piper’s heart climbs into her throat, pounding so hard she thinks that Annabeth can hear it. She takes a deep breath to steady herself before saying, “Then do it.”

A wide range of emotions flash across Annabeth’s face rapidly. Piper’s hands are shaking as Annabeth takes a step towards her, framing her face with her hands. Piper tucks a strand of Annabeth’s hair behind her ear as she leans forward, catching Annabeth’s lips with her own.

Piper has kissed girls before, but none of them hold a candle to kissing Annabeth. The kiss is soft, the feel of Annabeth’s hands on her face grounding her. Piper moves her hands to Annabeth’s shoulders, using them to get her even closer to Annabeth. The kiss is a promise of many kisses to come, and Piper can’t wait.

Annabeth pulls away first, but she doesn’t go far, resting her forehead against Piper’s. Neither of them speak for a long while. “I’m assuming a date- a real one- is in order?” Annabeth finally says. Piper laughs breathlessly between them.

“Yes, that would be nice,” Piper murmurs, leaning into Annabeth’s lips once more.

Piper is nineteen, and she feels like the happiest person alive.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on:  
> Instagram; not.annabeth.chase  
> Tumblr; flowercrownpiper


End file.
